Geelong Amateurs dig deep in bid to scale the heights

Adam McNicol

With their senior team sitting pretty on top of the ladder, supporters of the Geelong Amateur footy club are excitedly counting down the days until the Bellarine league finals begin in late August.

Yet there is also a sense of trepidation among some people connected with Ammos, for the club has lost three grand finals and a preliminary final since winning its most recent senior premiership in 2008.

"Everyone wants to remind us about it, and they are," Ammos football director Gavan Clark said. "I don't think the players even think about it. Some of the old supporters might, but the boys don't think about those things."

Geelong Amateur was formed in the mid-1920s by teachers and students from the region's most prestigious schools, Geelong College and Geelong Grammar, and the club's guernsey still features green to represent College and light blue to represent Grammar.

Between 1926 and 1982, Ammos played in the Melbourne-based Victorian Amateur Football Association and was strong enough to maintain a place in A- or B-grade during most of that time.

By the early '80s, however, the club's players and administrators were tired of travelling to the big smoke every second weekend, so they joined the Geelong and District league.

Advertisement

Although it kept the word 'Amateur' in its name, paying players was no longer forbidden. And Ammos put together a side strong enough to win the GDFL flag in 1985.

An ill-fated stint in the Geelong league followed, before they joined the Bellarine league in 1995.

You will now receive updates fromRealfooty Newsletter

Realfooty Newsletter

Geelong Amateur's senior side made its first BFL grand final in 2003, but suffered a nine-point loss to a Mark Neeld-coached Ocean Grove side, which had also won the previous three flags.

The club turned the tables the following season, securing its first Bellarine league premiership with a 46-point win over the Grubbers. And it backed that up with another flag in 2008.

Since then, however, Ammos have developed a reputation for falling over in September.

The run of outs began in 2009 when Geelong Amateur finished on top of the ladder and won straight through to the grand final.

On the big day it faced Drysdale, which had played in every week of the finals and had not won a premiership for 24 years. Yet the Hawks led at every change and eventually prevailed by 18 points.

A year later, the same teams met again in the grand final. This time, the boys in green and blue looked to have to the premiership in the bag when they led by 16 points at three-quarter time.

With Ammos about to kick with a strong breeze in the last quarter, one of their supporters apparently yelled out to the opposition barrackers, "We're heading back to put the champagne on ice."

But in one of the greatest turn-ups in Bellarine league history, Drysdale booted seven goals to three into the wind and scored a remarkable eight-point win.

Geelong Amateur climbed off the canvas to finish on top of the ladder in 2011, but lost the grand final again, this time to Queenscliff, which hadn't won a flag since 1975.

After missing the finals in 2012, Ammos finished second on the ladder last year, but were bowled over in the preliminary final by Queenscliff, which went on and won its third successive premiership.

Yet they're a resilient bunch at Queens Park, and Geelong Amateur is back in the hunt this season. In fact, the club is not just in contention, it is setting the pace.

Right now, as they enjoy a weekend off so that AFL Victoria's new city versus country representative matches can get some clear air, Ammos are undefeated and three games clear on top of the ladder.

"The all-round depth of our side has really helped," Clark said. "We brought in a couple of recruits who have given us a lot more pace in the midfield, and we had some players come back to our club from higher leagues."

One of those returnees, Ben Lavars, who became a star in the Geelong league during a stint with St Mary's, has been going so well back at Ammos that was picked in the No. 2 country side for yesterday's rep games.

The general consensus among followers of the Bellarine league is that it would take an extraordinary turn of events to stop Geelong Amateur winning the premiership this time around.

And given the club's joint-senior coaches, Andrew Lovick and Cory Bauer, are stepping down at the end of the season, Ammos have plenty of reasons to make this a year to remember.

But recent history means no one at the club is taking anything for granted.

"All we can do is take it one week at a time," Clark said. "We've just got to keep working hard and see what happens at the end of it."